As connected mobile navigation devices become more prevalent, i.e. those devices having means to connect to a remote server over a wireless network, there is a need to communicate information related to locations on a digital map (stored on the device) that is not part of the locally-stored map or is dynamical in nature (i.e. has a different dynamic than the map data).
It is currently known to associate one or more attributes with an object in digital map data. The object represents a real-world entity, such as speed camera, having properties modelled by the one or more attributes. A speed (or safety) camera represented at a location of the object in the digital map data may, for example, be associated with a direction attribute indicating the direction in which the camera faces or a speed limit attribute indicating a speed limit which the camera is provided to enforce. When a property of the camera changes, such as the direction which the camera is facing, this may be communicated to devices using the digital map data. Dissemination of the changed property may be achieved by pushing the data from a server to the device or to the devices. Such pushing may be performed on a periodic basis, i.e. daily, twice weekly, etc, or whenever a property changes at the server.
It is an object of embodiments of the invention to provide an improved method of disseminating information associated with such objects from a server to one or more mobile devices.